MENTAL HEALTH OF PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEART FAILURE

The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence and structure of mental disorders in elderly and senile patients in cardiology practice. The received results testify to necessity of approximation of the psychological and psychiatric help to the elderly patients of general medical practice. The attraction of qualified psychological staff to provide psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutical help for this group of the patients will facilitate improvements in the effect of somatic treatment and improve the quality of life of the elderly people.

The goal of our research is the study of mental health of older people with chronic heart failure. The aim of the study was to investigate the prevalence and structure of mental disorders in elderly and senile patients in cardiology practice to justify the need for the reform of old age psychiatry services for patients of general medical practice. Psychiatrists conducted continuous research on geriatric patients in the cardiology department. Survey data of 192 patients aged 60 years and older (97 women and 95 men) were studied using clinical, psychopathological methods, followed by computer processing of the results. All the patients with clinical criteria had chronic heart failure -- some patients were diagnosed with hypertension. The diagnosis of psychopathological disorders was carried out on the syndromal and ICD-10 level. Psychogeriatric and psychiatric scales were used to objectify clinical assessment: the screening scale for elderly patient surveys, a mini-mental state assessment test, the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Spielberg Hanina anxiety scale. The mental health of elderly patients with chronic heart failure was studied. Non-psychotic mental pathology was revealed in 81,1% of the surveyed persons. Depressive disorders were revealed in 39% of the patients, anxiety disorders in 39,3%, and hypochondriac disturbances in 23,7% of the patients. Sleep disorders were revealed in 89,8% of the elderly patients.

The use of the correlation analysis revealed authentic connections psychopathological disorders which were found in the survey, with chronic heart failure, presence of its complications, high multimorbidity and the infringement of patient functionalities. Cognitive disorders of a various degree were marked in 89,9% of those surveyed: cognitive disorders were expressed in 41,3% of the patients, dementia in 12,3% of the patients. Basic stressors named by patients were poverty, the death of a spouse, close member of family or friend, severe illness of a family member, and restrictions in being able to help themselves. A total of 23,8% of the patients were the lonely people, and 6,9% of those surveyed lived with distant relatives. The frequency of mental disorders in this group of the patients was higher than in the group surveyed as a whole, basically due to the amount of depressive disorders. The spent therapy of mental disorders at these patients promoted improvement not only parameters of mental health, together with somatic state of the patients. The received results testify to necessity of approximation of the psychological and psychiatric help to the elderly patients of general medical practice. The attraction of qualified psychological staff to provide psychopharmacological and psychotherapeutical help for this group of the patients will facilitate improvements in the effect of somatic treatment and improve the quality of life of the elderly people.

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